1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to all-suture anchors made entirely of suture material and inserters for inserting such anchors into tissue at a surgical site. More particularly, this invention relates to devices for percutaneously inserting or driving all-suture anchors into a surgical site.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Anchors are commonly employed during surgical procedures to provide a reliable attachment location for sutures in or against a substrate, those attached sutures then being used to capture and retain other objects, such as soft tissue or bone. The substrate may be bony tissue or soft tissue such as ligaments, tendons, etc. In the case of bony tissue, suture anchors are generally inserted into and retained in a pre-formed hole in the bone, so that suture extends from the anchor out of the hole. In the case of soft tissue, suture anchors generally are placed on a side of the soft tissue such that suture extends through a hole in the tissue to extend beyond the soft tissue on a side opposite the anchor.
Soft suture anchors have recently been developed from filaments of suture material which are retained within pre-formed bone holes by being deformable to increase their diameter to a size greater than that of the bone hole, to thereby reside within the cancellous bone and under the bone cortex. One such suture anchor is disclosed in U.S. Patent Publication 2012/0290004, published Nov. 15, 2012, assigned to the assignee hereof and incorporated by reference herein. Since soft anchors are commonly made entirely of suture materials, they are sometimes called “all-suture” anchors.
The necessity for a pre-formed hole when using all-suture anchors in bone requires extra instrumentation and extra steps in the process of implanting soft suture anchors. The extra steps involve making a pilot hole in the bone with either a drill, a broach or a punch and then removing the instrument. The hole thus created is an anchor receiving area, but once this space is created the instrument must be removed to allow the all-suture anchor to be inserted by an inserter and then deployed. While so-called “self-punching” inserters, drivers or applicators have been known to be used with some suture anchors which are hard enough to withstand the stresses of insertion without pre-drilling, there remains a need for a self-punching inserter for soft, all-suture anchors.
Accordingly, it is an object of this invention to produce a self-punching inserter suitable for inserting all-suture anchors into bone.
It is another object of this invention to produce a self-punching inserter capable of percutaneously driving an all-suture anchor into place at a surgical site.